12. Catching Fire

And the games continue….Suzanne Collins continues the saga of Katniss Everdeen and the districts of Panem in this very suspenseful second novel of the trilogy The Hunger Games called Catching Fire. Ominously dark and mysterious, we see Katniss and Peeta living in the Victors Village along with Haymitch. Three houses alone in a neighborhood. Katniss lives with her mother and little sister Prim. Haymitch and Peeta live alone.

Since Katniss and Peeta are the winners of the Games they must tour all the districts, which is like making them relive the Games all over again. It forces them to remember each tribute and how they died. Along the way there is an undercurrent of uprisings in district 11. I won’t write anymore because I’ll be forced to write spoilers. Hope I haven’t told you too much already.

Anyway, get on it people and read it! It’s very interesting and yes it’s YA literature (Young Adult lit). There are some good themes running through this trilogy such as government control, reality shows, psychology of survival, propaganda, etc. I’m sure it will be made into a movie next year, but I probably won’t go see it. I was so thoroughly disappointed with The Hunger Games as a movie. As of today, I’m on to the last novel Mockingjay. I fear for the characters and for the end….

As I was searching for interesting facts about Suzanne Collins and The Hunger Games, I ran across articles and You Tube videos of a controversy over the movie. Apparently there were Hunger Games fans that didn’t agree with the casting of Amandla Stenberg as Rue because she was black. I just couldn’t believe this. Rue is described as having dark brown skin in the book, but besides that only a racist could say that they didn’t feel anything when she was killed because she was black. Really? I couldn’t believe these so-called fans had the gall to write this nonsense on twitter. Needless to say, a real fan called them out by copying off their tweets and putting them on display on Facebook. Masses of people started bombarding their accounts and they had to become private or had to discontinue their accounts. I happened upon this interesting interview of Amandla Stenberg, who is an intelligent, well-spoken fourteen year old and has almost grown up in commercials on American tv. She really looks like what I had imagined Rue would look like, just adorable. Check her out! I’m sure we’ll be seeing her in more films.

I know… there is rarely ever a movie that is well adapted from a book. I haven’t had the chance to see Girl with a Dragon Tattoo yet. Word of advice… if you’ve ever read My Sister’s Keeper please don’t watch the movie… it isn’t even the same story and the protagonist doesn’t even show up until the final scene (and just in passing). I’ve never been so disappointed in a movie adaptation ever!

I thought the film of the Hunger Games was a really good adaptation of a book that was always going to be difficult to do and Catching Fire was an excellant sequel to The Hunger Games. It could never be as fresh and surprising but it was every bit as fresh. Sadly I think she lost her way a bit with the last book though.